The present invention relates to a calender having at least two horizontal rollers arranged substantially in one pressing plane, which rollers are supported at both ends by bearing brackets held in a frame.
The pressing plane is the plane defined along the axial length of the rollers at which cooperating rollers are pressed together.
One such calender is known in which the individual rollers are supported in bearing housings which are held in a vertically displaceable manner in frame-like bearing brackets. The bearing brackets are fastened in vertically displaceable fashion on a common frame. By vertical movement of the lowermost roller the roller nips can be opened and closed. For this purpose, the individual bearing brackets have stops against which the bearing housings stop when the lowermost roller is lowered (German Unexamined Application for Patent Offenlegungschrift 23 20 519). One essential disadvantage of this arrangement is that changing the set of rollers is very time consuming. First, the bearers, scrapers, etc. and the cover plates of the bearing brackets must be removed. (German Application No. 23 20 519, however, does not show all the additional necessary apparatus such as scrapers, bearers, etc.) Finally, the rollers must be suspended from a hoist and be moved out and then in again horizontally, whereby unintentional damage can easily result from improper operation of the hoist. Furthermore, the known calender has a single-side heavy stand from which the roller supports are suspended. This construction not only is expensive, but it also occupies much space because of its wide stands. Moreover, the single-side stands may bend under a load, as a result of which vibrations can occur.